AN/BLQ-11 Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System

Class overview
Name	AN/BLQ-11
Builders	Boeing Defense, Space & Security
Operators	United States Navy
General characteristics
Type	Autonomous underwater vehicle
Displacement	2,743 pounds (1,244 kg)
Length	20 ft (6.1 m)
Beam	1 ft 9 in (0.53 m)
Height	1 ft 9 in (0.53 m)
Propulsion	Thrusters
Endurance	60 hours (nominal load)
Test depth	3,300 ft (1,000 m; 550 fathoms)
Sensors &; processing systems	Forward/side-scan synthetic aperture sonar

The AN/BLQ-11 is an autonomous unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) formerly called Long-Term Mine Reconnaissance System (LMRS). It was developed by Boeing Defense, Space & Security for the United States Navy. The LMRS is a torpedo tube-launched and tube-recovered underwater search and survey vehicle capable of autonomous naval minefield reconnaissance as much as 120 miles (190 km) in advance of its host Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, or Virginia-class submarine.^[1] LMRS is equipped with both forward-looking sonar and side-scan synthetic aperture sonar.

History

Boeing concluded the detailed design phase of the development project on 31 August 1999. The USS Oklahoma City (SSN-723) successfully launched the 20-foot (6.1 m) long vehicle for covert mine countermeasures in September 2005. In January 2006 sea trials, the USS Scranton (SSN-756) conducted 24 test runs successfully demonstrating homing and docking of an LMRS UUV.^[2] In October 2007, USS Hartford (SSN-768) conducted further tests.

Due to technical and engineering limitations the U.S. Navy's Mission Reconfigurable UUV System (MRUUVS) program, of which AN/BLQ-11 was a part, ended in December 2008.^[3]^[4]

References

^ "USS Virginia SSN-774", SketchFab.com, 11 January 2023, retrieved 23 August 2023
^ Piggott, Mark O. (3 September 2006). "USS Scranton Completes Successful UUV Test". US Navy.mil. Archived from the original on 25 November 2006.
^ Winchester, C.; Egan, C.; Drozd, D.; Zolla, A.; Westenberger, J. (June 2002). "Performance, safety characterizations and system integration of a large lithium thionyl chloride battery for unmanned undersea vehicles". Proceedings of the 2002 Workshop on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, 2002. pp. 39–43. doi:10.1109/AUV.2002.1177200. ISBN 0-7803-7572-6. S2CID 108856840.
^ Wernli, Robert L (July 2000). Low Cost UUV's for Military Applications: Is the Technology Ready? (PDF) (Report). San Diego, California: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. Retrieved 23 November 2025.

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[Virginia-1] "USS Virginia SSN-774", SketchFab.com, 11 January 2023, retrieved 23 August 2023

[Scranton-2] Piggott, Mark O. (3 September 2006). "USS Scranton Completes Successful UUV Test". US Navy.mil. Archived from the original on 25 November 2006.

[Proceedings-3] Winchester, C.; Egan, C.; Drozd, D.; Zolla, A.; Westenberger, J. (June 2002). "Performance, safety characterizations and system integration of a large lithium thionyl chloride battery for unmanned undersea vehicles". Proceedings of the 2002 Workshop on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, 2002. pp. 39–43. doi:10.1109/AUV.2002.1177200. ISBN 0-7803-7572-6. S2CID 108856840.

[Wernli-4] Wernli, Robert L (July 2000). Low Cost UUV's for Military Applications: Is the Technology Ready? (PDF) (Report). San Diego, California: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. Retrieved 23 November 2025.

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